COMPOUNDING THE INTEREST
Every two years, on the eve of the Brisbane Truck Show, Volvo Group Australia (VGA) holds a media conference to discuss, among other things, the state of play of each of its three brands and, more broadly, deliver an overview of the business and fiscal factors affecting Australian road transport.
All up, it’s a worthwhile exercise with the brand executives from Volvo, Mack and UD each extolling the strengths of their respective products, expressing opportunities still to be tapped and very occasionally, exposing snippets of recent technological advances from within the corporate kingdom.
It’s also an event where VGA’s latest leader meets the Australian trucking media en masse for the first time; or at least that has been the case with the last two to join the long line of VGA presidents, namely former chief and executive extrovert Peter Voorhoeve, and since September last year, the seemingly more reticent and canny Martin Merrick.
Anyway, after the presentations comes the Q&A session where the media mass breaks into small groups for a few minutes of question time with the leader of each brand as well as a face-to-face chat with the boss. These are sometimes good sessions. Other times not. It all depends on the question.
Like, if you’re seeking insights into the reasons behind the group’s modern success or the qualities that define the appeal of a particular make and model, then this is the time to sit with
